The tireless Swiss Ramble has provided a forensic analysis of Bournemouth’s accounts for 2024/25 from his Zurich base. Here are some edited highlights, but his Substack page is very good value (free trial available).
Bournemouth’s results off the pitch were excellent, as they
swung from a £66m pre-tax loss to a £15m profit, a significant improvement of
£81m in the bottom line, mainly due to profit from player sales increasing from
just £251k to £91m.
Revenue rose £21m (13%) from £161m to a club record £182m,
while other operating income almost doubled from £9m to £17m. However, this was more than offset by steep
growth in operating expenses, which shot up £36m (16%) from £226m to £262m. in
addition, net interest payable was up from £10.6m to £13.4m.
The main driver of Bournemouth’s revenue growth was
broadcasting, which rose £12m (9%) from £136m to £148m. There was also a
significant increase in commercial, which was up £8m (45%) from £19m to £27m,
while match day was slightly higher, rising from £6.5m to £6.7m. All three revenue streams set new club highs
for the second year in a row.
Broadcasting was easily the most important revenue stream,
contributing an incredible 81% of revenue, followed by commercial 15% and match
day just 4%.
Bournemouth’s £14.9m profit is the second best result in the
Premier League to date in 2024/25, just behind Liverpool’s £15.2m. They are the
only two clubs that managed to make money last season.
Player sales
Of course, Bournemouth’s performance owed a lot to profit
from player sales, which shot up from only £0.3m to £91m, a huge new club
record. This is the second highest gain
reported to date for last season’s Premier League, only surpassed by Manchester
City’s £95m, though Chelsea £152m and Nottingham Forest £101m were better in
2023/24.
This season will again see significant profits from player
sales, following a few lucrative departures, mainly Antoine Semenyo to
Manchester City, Ilya Zabarnyi to Paris Saint-Germain, Milos Kerkez to
Liverpool and Dango Ouattara to Brentford.
To a certain extent, they are following the Brighton
template, whereby a club retains its talent in the first few seasons after
promotion, leading to low profits from player sales, but then developing the
squad by good recruitment of young players, so it can generate good money from
player trading. The club has become a
desirable destination for young players (and their agents), as it provides a
fantastic shop window in advance of a move to an elite club.
Stadium and training ground
Bournemouth’s low match day income is due to the limited
capacity at the Vitality Stadium, which is the smallest in the Premier League
at just 11,307. Indeed, the stadium occupancy is just shy of 99%. Black Knight acquired the stadium in April
2025 for £10m with a major redevelopment plan to expand capacity from 11,300 to
20,000 over the next 2–3 years, including upgrades to hospitality areas.
Planning permission was granted in January 2026.
The first phase is expected to be completed in advance of
the 2026/27 season, increasing capacity to 12,700, while phase two is scheduled
for completion before the start of the 2027/28 season, taking capacity to
20,300 seats. As a result, the capacity
at the Vitality Stadium will increase by more than 80% compared to the current
situation. The estimated investment is around £50m, which should deliver an
uplift of £7-8m per season.
In addition there has been the construction of a
state-of-the-art training facility at Canford Magna, now the base for all
football operations. This is a selling point in the recruitment of new players,
while helping to achieve an upgrade in Academy status from Category 3 to 2.
Bournemouth spent £104m on player purchases in 2024/25, in
line with the club’s “strategy of targeted expenditure of playing squad
assets”. The club did not provide any
details, but they did break the club transfer record to sign Evanilson from
Porto for an initial £31m. However,
this significant expenditure was still only mid-table in the Premier League, a
lot less than the elite, especially Liverpool £420m, Chelsea £294m, Manchester
City £261m and Arsenal £256m.
It might have gone unnoticed, but Bournemouth have spent
more than half a billion pounds on improving their squad in the four years
since promotion (and Black Knight’s arrival) with an outlay of £531m, which
would have been unthinkable not so long ago.
The exception that proves the rule?
Bournemouth should be applauded for their improvement since
Bill Foley bought the club, as they have improved their position in the Premier
League each season, while even managing to generate a profit in 2024/25. This is particularly impressive, given the
relatively low revenue, which has meant that Bournemouth have effectively
become a trading club, making good money from player sales.
In addition, the club has required a lot of financial
support from the owner, which has funded significant investment in the squad,
so the wage bill and transfer spend are now much more competitive.
It’s not easy for clubs like Bournemouth to consistently
beat the odds, with nearby Southampton providing an example of a magical player
trading model that eventually ran out of steam. However, Black Knight have so far proved to
be smart cookies, so they might be the exception that proves the rule.
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